I had said that I wasn't going to write a sequel to SASY. I lied. Here it is! Yay!
Part 1 - Blowing in the Wind
Harry Potter sat in the forest, shielded by trees, and watched the fire crackling before him. The flames danced in intricate patterns, so complex that Harry could almost see shapes forming in them.
He saw the face of Lord Voldemort, dying at the bottom of a lake.
He saw the form of a young man, torn between evil and good, unsure of whether he was fighting for good or simply for the sake of fighting.
He saw Ginny Weasley's beautiful, smiling face...
He would never see that face again...
Harry shifted, and the Sword of Gryffindor shifted with him. He remembered, suddenly, the last confrontation he'd had with Dumbledore before finally being allowed to leave Hogwarts. How Dumbledore had insisted that Harry still had a role to play. How the old, exhausted man had somehow given the Sword of Gryffindor to Harry without Harry's noticing.
Why, exactly, he had been given the Sword was anyone's guess. Dumbledore hadn't stopped to even scribble a note for Harry. He had left Harry completely in the dark - but then, what else was new?
Harry watched the horizon with a sense of tension. The sun would be coming up soon. As a vampire, Harry had a distinct knowledge of the patterns of the sun.
Some things were new.
By the time the sun rose, Harry was sheltered inside a hollow of an enormous tree. The hollow itself was at least ten feet by ten feet - perhaps not a very comfortable fit, but a fit all the same. It would do.
Harry was hungry. Hunger for a vampire, he'd discovered, was worse than hunger for a human. He felt awful cravings for the blood of still-living victims. But he wouldn't do it. A spell had been performed to give Harry back his human soul, and that soul kept him from killing people.
"It's almost a pity..." he muttered to himself. Life would have been so much simpler without the damned soul.
Harry's journey was progressing excellently, if you took into consideration the amount of ground he was covering and neglected to include in your assessment his complete lack of a destination. He didn't have a map or anything, but Harry suspected that he'd covered at least two hundred miles in the week he'd been gone from Hogwarts. The school was firmly in his past.
Harry settled into his tree trunk, feeling not comfort, but instead a resigned relaxation. The soulful part of him was fine with a little peace and quiet. His vampiric side, however, craved carnage and destruction. It wasn't easy to reign in those tendencies.
Harry wanted to sleep. But he didn't sleep anymore. He simply existed.
When night finally fell, Harry pushed his way out of the tree trunk and began traveling anew. He didn't have a clue where he was going - all he did know was that Britain wasn't a terribly huge island, and that he would eventually reach the coast if he just kept walking. And coast meant boats...boats meant being elsewhere...
Perhaps then he could really leave everything behind.
As he walked through the forest, Harry kept his senses sharp. This part of Britain was known for its demons. Known for its demons to those who know of the existence of demons, that is.
Harry had only been attacked once since his departure from Hogwarts, and the two Thesulac demons were currently a bloody pulp sticking to several different trees. If any other demons had been watching the altercation, Harry doubted that he'd be given any more trouble.
He'd thought wrong. As he moved, he became distinctly aware of a second set of feet moving in tandem with his own. Harry slowed a bit, making sure not to alert his new enemy to the fact that he'd heard him.
Harry walked on like that, monitoring the footsteps of his stalker to make sure the thing didn't get too close or too far away, and he searched for a good place to fight. He wasn't sure how long the thing was going to avoid him, so he searched quickly, finally settling for an area where the trees thinned a bit.
As Harry entered it, the canopy of tree's parted a bit, showing to Harry for the first time that night the sky. He stopped, looking up at it. The footsteps following him also stopped.
"Whatever you are, you don't want to fight me," he warned. Harry lowered his gaze and searched idly for the creature. Unsurprisingly, he couldn't see it, but that didn't make a difference. He was confident that he could fight it.
Slowly, a large creature emerged from the darkness cast by the trees. It was about six feet tall, and was covered in shaggy brown hair. Harry gave it a look devoid of emotion.
"I am not your dinner," he said. "Go away and I won't kill you."
The beast snarled and advanced towards Harry. Harry sighed. This wouldn't take long, but it still annoyed him to no end. He had to take a little bit of time out of eternity to end this creature's pitiful existence, just to get back to his own pitiful existence.
The beast charged Harry, swinging its powerful upper arms at him. Harry ducked under the swing, and the creature's clawed paws traveled on, ripping an enormous chunk out of a nearby tree. The creature recovered faster than Harry had anticipated and swung again, downward at where Harry crouched.
This time, the creature scored a hit, sending Harry flying into another small tree. Dazed, Harry slowly climbed to his feet, searching his blurry vision for the creature. He couldn't let it do that again.
He was completely unable to see the thing. It had disappeared. Harry searched in futility for a moment, then remembered how to find the thing. He shut his eyes and listened.
After a moment of silence, Harry heard a faint noise that was the creature breathing. Harry vamped out and leapt, catching the hidden creature completely by surprise. Harry knocked it quickly to the ground, pinning its enormous arms with his own. He felt the power of the creature. It was strong. He was stronger.
In a deft movement that was faster than the human eye could track, Harry with drew his hands from the creature's arms and twisted its head violently. Harry must have really been annoyed by the creature, for instead of just snapping its neck, its head was ripped from its body, causing an explosion of gore over the ground.
Harry didn't pant. He didn't sweat. His expression never changed once. As he climbed to his feet, he licked a bit of the creature's blood off his hand. "Hmmm," he said, to himself. "Tasty."
Harry Potter's trek away from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry took him west, towards the Celtic Sea. He reached the sea a half week after his encounter with the shaggy haired beast, which, by the way, had made an excellent meal. He hadn't been troubled after the incident; the smell of the dead brute was all over him.
Upon reaching the sea, Harry found himself in a small port town called Mezl.
Harry walked into the small town, and was immediately aware of two things; one, that the town he'd entered wouldn't have existed without the port, and two, that the town's population was well under a thousand.
It was perfect.
When night fell, Harry got out from the alley he'd used as cover for the day and headed for the wharf. With any luck, one of the two dozen or so ships in the port would be heading out of Britain soon.
The wharf was deserted, which caught Harry half by surprise. He surveyed the scene before him and decided that one of the wharf houses was his best bet.
Harry entered the first convenient one without knocking. The small cabin was lit with candles. On the end of a desk that blocked off half the room and another doorway lay a bell. Harry rang it.
He waited a moment. Then another. Finally, a man came through the door in the back. He held a cross before him.
"Back, you!" he yelled, lunging with the cross. Harry batted the man's hand away, missing the cross, luckily.
The man looked at his fallen cross, then back at Harry. "It shoulda scared you," he said, in a fairly thick Cockney accent. "It shoulda burned yeh, too. Well, I guess you aren't a vampire."
Harry silently thanked his resilience.
"What can I do for yeh?" the man asked, obviously more disposed towards Harry know.
Harry decided to play dumb. "What was that all about?"
"Never mind, kid," the man said. "It's not yer problem."
Discarding dumb, Harry went for the gist. "If you're having a vampire problem here, I'd be more than happy to help you out."
The man laughed outright. "What would you do?" he asked.
"Deal with it," Harry said. "Do you want my help or not?"
The man considered Harry for a moment. He shook his head, after a time. "It's none of yer business," he said.
"Suit yourself," Harry said, emotionless. "I'm looking for a way out of this country, preferably tonight."
"I've got a boat leaving for America in about two hours," the man said. "Its no pleasure cruiser, but it'll get you there."
"How much do I owe you?" Harry asked, beginning to reach back for the small amount of gold he'd brought from Hogwarts.
"Nothing, kid," the man said. "You made me laugh, which hasn't happened in a while."
Indifferent, Harry withdrew the hand from his back pocket. "I'll just wait outside," Harry said.
"Deal with our vampires, wait outside..." the man trailed off as he walked back through his doorway. In the brief moment that the door was open, Harry saw a bed in the next room. He wouldn't have been able to enter it. These people obviously had a serious problem with vampires.
Oh, well.
He'd offered them help, and they'd refused. Well, one person had refused, but the rest would be just like him. Harry left the cabin and walked down onto the grass of the inner wharf. There he sat and waited.
Two hours later, a group of armed men came hurrying towards him. "You the kid we're taking to America?" one of them asked.
"That's me," Harry replied. "Why do you have an arsenal with you?"
"Can't be too careful," one of the sailors said. "Come on, the boat's this way. The Salau. You'll love her."
"Doubtful," Harry muttered, but to himself.
Two weeks later, the Salau entered the American port city of New York. The little boat was caught transporting contraband into America around Ellis Island. Unbeknownst to the American officials, a young man slipped over the railing as the ship was being boarded.
Harry first set foot on American soil as, not only a vampire, but a waterlogged vampire. The city of New York lay before him.
Harry decided to stake out some sleeping space for himself first, then find a butcher to purchase dinner.
However, Harry quickly discovered that lacking money was a serious problem in finding anywhere to stay in New York. Eventually, he gave up on the hotels and decided to stay in an alley.
It couldn't be much worse than the cramped contraband ship, right?
Harry Potter settled in for a cold night, a cold being himself. The temperature outside didn't bother him in the slightest; the cold was a part of him as much, if not more, than the soul that still caused a dull ache in his chest.
I said I wasn't going to do a sequel to SASY...I lied...can you forgive me? Hopefully, you will, since I think that this story, and the next two (AWA, prequel to SASY, and Hell Soul, sequel to Sword of Gryffindor) are going to kick some serious ass. Peace out children. Remember to leave your reviews for the poor humble author.
Part 1 - Blowing in the Wind
Harry Potter sat in the forest, shielded by trees, and watched the fire crackling before him. The flames danced in intricate patterns, so complex that Harry could almost see shapes forming in them.
He saw the face of Lord Voldemort, dying at the bottom of a lake.
He saw the form of a young man, torn between evil and good, unsure of whether he was fighting for good or simply for the sake of fighting.
He saw Ginny Weasley's beautiful, smiling face...
He would never see that face again...
Harry shifted, and the Sword of Gryffindor shifted with him. He remembered, suddenly, the last confrontation he'd had with Dumbledore before finally being allowed to leave Hogwarts. How Dumbledore had insisted that Harry still had a role to play. How the old, exhausted man had somehow given the Sword of Gryffindor to Harry without Harry's noticing.
Why, exactly, he had been given the Sword was anyone's guess. Dumbledore hadn't stopped to even scribble a note for Harry. He had left Harry completely in the dark - but then, what else was new?
Harry watched the horizon with a sense of tension. The sun would be coming up soon. As a vampire, Harry had a distinct knowledge of the patterns of the sun.
Some things were new.
By the time the sun rose, Harry was sheltered inside a hollow of an enormous tree. The hollow itself was at least ten feet by ten feet - perhaps not a very comfortable fit, but a fit all the same. It would do.
Harry was hungry. Hunger for a vampire, he'd discovered, was worse than hunger for a human. He felt awful cravings for the blood of still-living victims. But he wouldn't do it. A spell had been performed to give Harry back his human soul, and that soul kept him from killing people.
"It's almost a pity..." he muttered to himself. Life would have been so much simpler without the damned soul.
Harry's journey was progressing excellently, if you took into consideration the amount of ground he was covering and neglected to include in your assessment his complete lack of a destination. He didn't have a map or anything, but Harry suspected that he'd covered at least two hundred miles in the week he'd been gone from Hogwarts. The school was firmly in his past.
Harry settled into his tree trunk, feeling not comfort, but instead a resigned relaxation. The soulful part of him was fine with a little peace and quiet. His vampiric side, however, craved carnage and destruction. It wasn't easy to reign in those tendencies.
Harry wanted to sleep. But he didn't sleep anymore. He simply existed.
When night finally fell, Harry pushed his way out of the tree trunk and began traveling anew. He didn't have a clue where he was going - all he did know was that Britain wasn't a terribly huge island, and that he would eventually reach the coast if he just kept walking. And coast meant boats...boats meant being elsewhere...
Perhaps then he could really leave everything behind.
As he walked through the forest, Harry kept his senses sharp. This part of Britain was known for its demons. Known for its demons to those who know of the existence of demons, that is.
Harry had only been attacked once since his departure from Hogwarts, and the two Thesulac demons were currently a bloody pulp sticking to several different trees. If any other demons had been watching the altercation, Harry doubted that he'd be given any more trouble.
He'd thought wrong. As he moved, he became distinctly aware of a second set of feet moving in tandem with his own. Harry slowed a bit, making sure not to alert his new enemy to the fact that he'd heard him.
Harry walked on like that, monitoring the footsteps of his stalker to make sure the thing didn't get too close or too far away, and he searched for a good place to fight. He wasn't sure how long the thing was going to avoid him, so he searched quickly, finally settling for an area where the trees thinned a bit.
As Harry entered it, the canopy of tree's parted a bit, showing to Harry for the first time that night the sky. He stopped, looking up at it. The footsteps following him also stopped.
"Whatever you are, you don't want to fight me," he warned. Harry lowered his gaze and searched idly for the creature. Unsurprisingly, he couldn't see it, but that didn't make a difference. He was confident that he could fight it.
Slowly, a large creature emerged from the darkness cast by the trees. It was about six feet tall, and was covered in shaggy brown hair. Harry gave it a look devoid of emotion.
"I am not your dinner," he said. "Go away and I won't kill you."
The beast snarled and advanced towards Harry. Harry sighed. This wouldn't take long, but it still annoyed him to no end. He had to take a little bit of time out of eternity to end this creature's pitiful existence, just to get back to his own pitiful existence.
The beast charged Harry, swinging its powerful upper arms at him. Harry ducked under the swing, and the creature's clawed paws traveled on, ripping an enormous chunk out of a nearby tree. The creature recovered faster than Harry had anticipated and swung again, downward at where Harry crouched.
This time, the creature scored a hit, sending Harry flying into another small tree. Dazed, Harry slowly climbed to his feet, searching his blurry vision for the creature. He couldn't let it do that again.
He was completely unable to see the thing. It had disappeared. Harry searched in futility for a moment, then remembered how to find the thing. He shut his eyes and listened.
After a moment of silence, Harry heard a faint noise that was the creature breathing. Harry vamped out and leapt, catching the hidden creature completely by surprise. Harry knocked it quickly to the ground, pinning its enormous arms with his own. He felt the power of the creature. It was strong. He was stronger.
In a deft movement that was faster than the human eye could track, Harry with drew his hands from the creature's arms and twisted its head violently. Harry must have really been annoyed by the creature, for instead of just snapping its neck, its head was ripped from its body, causing an explosion of gore over the ground.
Harry didn't pant. He didn't sweat. His expression never changed once. As he climbed to his feet, he licked a bit of the creature's blood off his hand. "Hmmm," he said, to himself. "Tasty."
Harry Potter's trek away from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry took him west, towards the Celtic Sea. He reached the sea a half week after his encounter with the shaggy haired beast, which, by the way, had made an excellent meal. He hadn't been troubled after the incident; the smell of the dead brute was all over him.
Upon reaching the sea, Harry found himself in a small port town called Mezl.
Harry walked into the small town, and was immediately aware of two things; one, that the town he'd entered wouldn't have existed without the port, and two, that the town's population was well under a thousand.
It was perfect.
When night fell, Harry got out from the alley he'd used as cover for the day and headed for the wharf. With any luck, one of the two dozen or so ships in the port would be heading out of Britain soon.
The wharf was deserted, which caught Harry half by surprise. He surveyed the scene before him and decided that one of the wharf houses was his best bet.
Harry entered the first convenient one without knocking. The small cabin was lit with candles. On the end of a desk that blocked off half the room and another doorway lay a bell. Harry rang it.
He waited a moment. Then another. Finally, a man came through the door in the back. He held a cross before him.
"Back, you!" he yelled, lunging with the cross. Harry batted the man's hand away, missing the cross, luckily.
The man looked at his fallen cross, then back at Harry. "It shoulda scared you," he said, in a fairly thick Cockney accent. "It shoulda burned yeh, too. Well, I guess you aren't a vampire."
Harry silently thanked his resilience.
"What can I do for yeh?" the man asked, obviously more disposed towards Harry know.
Harry decided to play dumb. "What was that all about?"
"Never mind, kid," the man said. "It's not yer problem."
Discarding dumb, Harry went for the gist. "If you're having a vampire problem here, I'd be more than happy to help you out."
The man laughed outright. "What would you do?" he asked.
"Deal with it," Harry said. "Do you want my help or not?"
The man considered Harry for a moment. He shook his head, after a time. "It's none of yer business," he said.
"Suit yourself," Harry said, emotionless. "I'm looking for a way out of this country, preferably tonight."
"I've got a boat leaving for America in about two hours," the man said. "Its no pleasure cruiser, but it'll get you there."
"How much do I owe you?" Harry asked, beginning to reach back for the small amount of gold he'd brought from Hogwarts.
"Nothing, kid," the man said. "You made me laugh, which hasn't happened in a while."
Indifferent, Harry withdrew the hand from his back pocket. "I'll just wait outside," Harry said.
"Deal with our vampires, wait outside..." the man trailed off as he walked back through his doorway. In the brief moment that the door was open, Harry saw a bed in the next room. He wouldn't have been able to enter it. These people obviously had a serious problem with vampires.
Oh, well.
He'd offered them help, and they'd refused. Well, one person had refused, but the rest would be just like him. Harry left the cabin and walked down onto the grass of the inner wharf. There he sat and waited.
Two hours later, a group of armed men came hurrying towards him. "You the kid we're taking to America?" one of them asked.
"That's me," Harry replied. "Why do you have an arsenal with you?"
"Can't be too careful," one of the sailors said. "Come on, the boat's this way. The Salau. You'll love her."
"Doubtful," Harry muttered, but to himself.
Two weeks later, the Salau entered the American port city of New York. The little boat was caught transporting contraband into America around Ellis Island. Unbeknownst to the American officials, a young man slipped over the railing as the ship was being boarded.
Harry first set foot on American soil as, not only a vampire, but a waterlogged vampire. The city of New York lay before him.
Harry decided to stake out some sleeping space for himself first, then find a butcher to purchase dinner.
However, Harry quickly discovered that lacking money was a serious problem in finding anywhere to stay in New York. Eventually, he gave up on the hotels and decided to stay in an alley.
It couldn't be much worse than the cramped contraband ship, right?
Harry Potter settled in for a cold night, a cold being himself. The temperature outside didn't bother him in the slightest; the cold was a part of him as much, if not more, than the soul that still caused a dull ache in his chest.
I said I wasn't going to do a sequel to SASY...I lied...can you forgive me? Hopefully, you will, since I think that this story, and the next two (AWA, prequel to SASY, and Hell Soul, sequel to Sword of Gryffindor) are going to kick some serious ass. Peace out children. Remember to leave your reviews for the poor humble author.